Everything Emma: Play on my Little Love

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Play on my Little Love

Our little Miss Emma has now discovered a cabinet filled with what is now her favorite form of entertainment... Is she playing with all of the fancy toys everyone bought her for Christmas? NOPE! She could care less about those! Rather than playing with the truck load of toys and books she just scored a few weeks ago, she would rather crawl over to the tupperware cabinet and play with plastic bowls and wooden spoons! She will literally sit and play in this cabinet, quiet, and content as can be for an hour or more at a time! Why did I not think of this when I was out buying all of those Christmas toys? I mean I get it... From a baby's perspective this is probably pretty cool. Colors, shapes, different textures... You can stack, take things in and out, and of course bang things together making enough noise to give your mother a headache. As I came to this realization I began thinking about the developmental benefits that would arise from an activity such as this... I had several of my own thoughts but decided to look it up in my playskool book of baby play. Here is what I discovered...

Playing with everyday kitchen utensils provides as a great source of sensory therapy, a type of play that is proven to boost the IQ's of small children. It also teaches object permanence, spacial relations, along with cause and effect. These all being incredibly important to a child's brain development and future intellect. Absolutely astounding if you ask me! The idea that something as simple and easy to provide a child with can contain, aide, and promote so many forms of brain development that are crucial during the first year of life! Proof that you do not always have to drop a large amount of cash in order to provide your child with the best learning environment possible. This will definitely be an activity which we will continue to pursue until it no longer peaks her interest. I love this so much in fact, that when we return home to North Carolina next month I will be baby proofing all but one cabinet- the tupperware cabinet! Just for you Emma!

Play on my little love!

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My name is Jenny and I have been married to my wonderful husband, Issac, since June of 2006. Issac is a Staff Sergeant in the Air Force and works as an instructor at Sheppard Air Force Base. He has been in the Air Force for nearly eight years but will be making a big change in just a few short months when he separates from the Air Force and goes to work as a civilian. I run an online based children's boutique and am able to operate on an international level from the comfort of my own home office. Polka Dot Designs was started in October of 2010 and has grown tremendously throughout the past year and a half. As of right now we have sold to 43 states, 14 countries, and hundreds of cities across the globe. I love what I do and love that I am able to stay home and not miss a beat while I do it. For the first almost four years it was just the two of us but on May 3, 2010 that all changed when we were blessed with our beautiful daughter Emma Reese. This blog was created to keep all of our wonderful friends and family back home updated on our beautiful little girl's milestones.

What Emma is Doing

All of her colors.

All of her letters.

All basic shapes and even a handful of more advanced one.

Can name all of her body parts.

Knows the days of the week and can even tell you which activities she has on which days.

She has been doing chores and has been responsible for cleaning her playroom and bedroom for about a year. In recent months she has gotten to a point where she will often begin her cleaning for the day without me having to ask or monitor her while she does it.

Can re-tell many of the stories from the Bible and can tell you all about Jesus.

Knows how to spell her name.

Learning how to write her letters- we haven't really started working on writing number yet.

Learning some basic addition.

Learning about money and the value of different coins. This ties in well with teaching her addition because she is learning simple things like 5 pennies= 1 nickle.

Still a very healthy little eater and typically has no aversion to eating her veggies. She does prefer eating them raw and loves going to my favorite salad spot for lunch after morning gymnastics.

Loves listening to music and enjoys playing piano and guitar with Daddy. We have the keys on our piano labeled so for about the past year she has been learning the notes.

Loves her "Best friend pup" and sleeps with him every night.

Very good at drawing and has taught herself to draw so many things that I did not think a three year old could even draw.

Going to gymnastics three days a week- she can do front rolls, tuck jumps, straddle jumps, and pikes all by herself and is even walking backwards on the beam, doing small jumps on the beam, and doing simple flips on the bars. She is currently working on cartwheels and simple back walkovers using the mat that is shaped like a block.

Fully potty trained- praise the Lord for that one!

Knows all about different types of food and can tell you which foods are healthy and which are unhealthy.